August 13 (SeeNews) - Croatia's gas transmission system operator Plinacro said on Thursday the works on the undersea section of the 430 million kuna ($68 million/57 million euro) pipeline that would link mainland Croatia to a planned LNG terminal on the Krk island are close to completion.
The pipes of the 750-metre long undersea section were laid on the seabed in the late hours of August 12, which marks the end of the most complex works on the project, state-owned Plinacro said in a statement.
The works were carried out by local companies Monter - Strojarska Montaza and Pomgrad Inzenjering.
The construction of the 16.7-km long Omisalj-Zlobin pipeline began in December.
So far, the entire trench of the pipeline has been dug and prepared, and some 80% of the pipes have been installed and buried, Plinacro said, adding that works on the two gas junctions are in progress.
The Omisalj-Zlobin pipeline is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year and will be able to carry gas to mainland Croatia once the LNG terminal becomes operational.
In May, the Croatian government approved the planned borrowing of up to 250 million kuna by Plinacro from the local unit of Erste Bank - Erste&Steiermaerkische Bank, to finance the construction of the Omisalj-Zlobin LNG pipeline. The ten-year loan has a one-year grace period, as well as a regular fixed interest rate of 1.45% and an effective interest rate of 1.48%, the government has said.
The Krk LNG terminal will have a capacity of 2.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas per year as of 2021. It will deliver gas to the Croatian national transmission network connected to fellow EU member states Slovenia, Italy and Hungary, as well as non-EU Serbia and Montenegro.
(1 euro = 7.51037 kuna)